When is a Deal not a Deal?

I have been peaking into some of the blogs and frugal web sites that I visit. I notice that many of the web sites are devoted to giving out information on "good deals" on all sorts of consumer goods. Some are devoted to giving out discount shopping codes for internet shopping web sites.

The thought struck me that there are plenty of people who go onto Ebay or other shopping web sites and purchase things for fun. It is great if they can get a discount code but often they are spending money they don't have on things they don't need. That is exactly when a deal is not a deal.

Many of the frugal forums I visit have people talking about "no spend days". This means different things to different people. Some include, as a no spend day, a day that a person buys a tank of gas or other necessities. Others mean NO money spent only. What they all agree on is that spending money on things that are not essential is not the way to be frugal.

Challenge yourself to define, for you, what a no spend day is and then set a goal of a particular number of days in a week (or a month) that you do not spend money. Set a reasonable goal (say 2/7 days) and then increase it as time goes on. You will be surprised how much money you actually save!